Harry's Tale: The Philosopher's Stone
by Harry-Potter-Holic1233
Summary: Harry gives a detailed view on what happened during his first year at Hogwarts to his friends and family. I know this has been done before, but this time, the whole book will be in Harry's point of view! ON PERMANENT HIATUS
1. Prologue

**Harry's Tale: The Philosopher's Stone**

Prologue

**A/N: I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does, I'm just using her characters and books.**

"I think you're ready," Harry stated plainly. "I think you're old enough to know now."

Standing in front of the fireplace, he looked at his three children in turn. His eyes first travelled to Lily, who was in her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had flaming red hair like her mother, and eyes of deep hazelnut. She was usually kind and gentle, but if you got on the wrong side of her, you would be in trouble.

His eyes travelled from Lily to Albus, who was in his sixth year at Hogwarts, and was a prefect there. He was like a miniature Harry in every way. From his knobbly knees, messy black hair that stuck up at the back, to his bright green eyes. Albus was also like Harry in his temperament. He was kind, modest but extremely stubborn.

James on the other hand, was Ginny and Harry combined. He had Harry's hair but he also had Ginny's eyes. James had a knack of finding trouble, and was a prankster at heart, like his namesake, the grandfather he never had the chance to get to know. James was in his seventh, and final year at Hogwarts and was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.

"Know what?" They all said in unison, looking up at their dad curiously.

"The truth" Harry said simply.

"The truth about what?" They asked, starting to get annoyed, but Harry wasn't listening. He was just leaving the room when he passed Ginny.

"Have you sent the letters yet?" he murmured, but not quietly enough.

"What letters?" They asked, sounding _really_ annoyed now

"Just inviting a few friends round." Ginny shrugged. "You'll see this afternoon."

That afternoon, Lily, Albus and James were _so_ excited. Too excited Harry realized when he heard Ginny shouting.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER! COME UP HERE _NOW_!"

Harry ran upstairs and into Lily's bedroom and doubled up laughing. Every bit of wallpaper was neon pink and had big love hearts saying SM + LP. James came up into the bedroom and said,

"What?" in an innocent tone that fooled no one.

"EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Ginny screamed. Lily and Albus came up to see what the shouting was all about. Once Albus had seen the decor, he doubled up laughing too. Lily narrowed her eyes and gave a sly grin.

"Oh I will so get you back for this." Ginny now noticed Harry and Albus laughing. Well, she didn't so much notice Albus, but she definitely noticed her husband. Now Ginny had to two people to shout at, and Lily and Albus decided to quietly slip away and let their mother get on with ranting without them. Finally, the shouting stopped and seconds later there was a bell ringing.

"I'll get it." said a weary voice and ten seconds later, Harry was at the door, opening it. About a dozen familiar faces were smiling at them. There was Hermione, Ron, Hugo and Rose, Bill, Fleur, Teddy and Victoire, George and Fred, Molly and Arthur, Scorpius, Neville and Luna. Albus went up to Scorpius and Rose to say hello, while Harry was greeting his friends and a few minutes later, a harassed looking Ginny came down with James, who was looking quite terrified. At the sight of his best mate Fred, his scared face turned into a grin.

"Come in, come in, make yourselves comfy." Ginny said, with no trace of her angry demeanor. Harry, didn't go into the lounge. He turned into another room and took out a leather-bound journal holding several sheets of parchment. He sighed, knowing what he had to do. He gathered his strength and then proceeded to the lounge.


	2. The Vanishing Glass

**Harry's Tale: The Philosopher's Stone**

Chapter one

The Vanishing Glass

**A/N: I know that it is not in fact the first chapter, but since Harry wrote this from his memories, It will only include chapters where Harry can see what's happening**

**(Disclaimer: I own nothing)**

He went into the lounge and sat himself down next to Ron and Ginny. Ginny smiled at him and squeezed his hand, she knew how tough it would be. Once Harry had sat down, an explosion of questions came from all the kids mouths.

" What is that?" "When did you get it?" "Why did you get it?" "What is all about?" "Hey, I already asked that!" Harry put his finger to his lips, and they all took that to mean "Be quiet!"

"This is a journal of everything I did in my school years, and yes, that means the final battle also. I did not get it, I made it. I stored all my memories into a pensive and I wrote what I saw down onto this manuscript. I made it so that I can tell all of you the whole story.

"**Chapter one,"** Harry read, "**The Vanishing Glass."**

**Nearly ten years had passed since Dumbledore had left me on the Dursley's doorstep, but practically nothing about Privet Drive had changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four, like it did everyday. The only thing that had changed inside the house were the photographs. Instead of lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats,**

"Nice description!" said Fred and James while George, Ron, Bill and Ginny sniggered.

Molly shot them a glare that could have liquified their kidneys which shut them up immediately,

"I'm sure I can find some photographs of you that are suitably embarrassing." Molly said severely, making all of her children groan, to the great amusement of the second generation.

**there were now photographs of a large, blonde boy riding his first bicycle,**

"Dudley?" Rose scoffed, "Riding a bicycle?"

"Rose," Hermione sighed, "That's not a very nice thing to say."

"But it's Dudley!" Hugo exclaimed, as though that explained everything.

"Continue Reading, please." Ginny said to her husband.

**on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. Nothing that showed that I also lived there.**

Teddy sighed, he could not imagine how hard it would have been to grow up in such a hateful environment, while the people who were 'caring' for him were pretending he didn't exist.

**As usual, Aunt Petunia woke me up with her shrill voice as she rapped on the cupboard door.**

"**Up! Get up! Now!" **

**That was the standard wake up call every morning, tapping on my 'bedroom', the cupboard underneath the stairs.**

"**Up!" she screeched. She had just woken me up from a very good dream. There had been a flying motorbike in it. I had the funny feeling that I'd had the same dream before.**

**Petunia was back outside the door, nagging me to get up. Unfortunately for me, it was Dudley's birthday. It wasn't until Petunia started pestering me about not burning the bacon that I realized what the special day was.**

**I went back to the cupboard to get dressed. Eventually finding the missing sock that was hidden underneath my bed, I pulled the spider off it**

Ron and Rose both shuddered causing George to snigger. After all, it was his fault that Ron was so afraid of spiders.

"Do we have to hear all the details?" Rose asked incredulously. She had picked up her father's hatred and fear of spiders.

**and put the sock on. I was used to spiders by this time, since my cupboard was full of them, and he had to sleep in it whether I liked it or not, so I put up with them. **

**When I went down into the kitchen, I practically had nowhere to serve the bacon. The whole table was hidden beneath all of Dudley's birthday presents. From the shape of the presents, it looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Personally, I could not understand why Dudley wanted a racing bike, given that Dudley was very fat and hated exercise,**

"See!" Rose exclaimed, "Harry agrees with me!"

**unless of course it was involved with punching somebody.**

Ginnysighed, she had a suspicion who he punched so much. She had a feeling the others did too, because they kept on glancing nervously at Harry.

**Dudley's favourite punchbag of course, was me. But at least he couldn't often catch me. I was a lot faster than I looked. Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but I had always been small and skinny for my age. Although it didn't help that I had to wear Dudley's old clothes, who was about four times bigger than me. I looked completely different compared to the rest of the family, I had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes. I wore round glasses, like the ones I wear now, only the bridge was held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times that Dudley and his gang had punched me in the nose.**

**At that time, the only thing I liked about my appearance was a very thin, lightning bolt-shaped scar on my forehead. **

"You used to like your scar?" Ron and Hermione asked.

"Yeah, well, this was before I knew how I got it, right?" replied Harry.

"Oh, yeah."

**I'd had it as long as I could remember, and the first question I had ever asked Aunt Petunia was how I got my scar.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"CAR CRASH?" Molly screamed, "LILY AND JAMES COULD NEVER HAVE DIED IN A _CAR CRASH_!" She looked mutinous, but she wasn't the only one. Ron and Hermione looked scandalised, while Teddy, Victoire, and Fleur were just shocked that someone could tell such a big lie about his past.

"It's alright dear," Arthur said calmly to her aggravated wife, "This happened years ago, and I'm sure that someone would have dealt with it" Arthur smiled at Harry who grinned back, remembering the pig's tail that Dudley received.

Scorpius on the other hand wasn't that shocked. His father after all had grown up being fed the pureblood opinions and lies about the world around him.

**she had said, "And don't ask questions." _Don't ask questions_ – that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"But how can you learn if you don't ask questions?" Luna asked in an airy voice. Almost everyone had forgotten her presence, but Luna smiled knowingly, she wasn't surprised by their reactions.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as I was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that I needed a haircut. I think I must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in my class put together, but it made no difference, my hair simply grew all over the place.**

"See mum?" Albus grinned, "You can't do anything about my hair, it's in the family."

James scoffed, "Great, so we're both stuck with looking like scrawny gits for life."

Ginny sent James and Albus a warning look that silenced their laughter at once.

**By the time Dudley had arrived in the kitchen with Petunia, I was already frying eggs. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel, but I thought that he looked more like a pig in a blonde wig.**

"BRILLIANT!" said Fred, James and George, "Who knew you were so funny!"

Harry rolled his eyes at them.

**As I was putting the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room, Dudley was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father."That's two less than last year."**

"That spoilt brat!" Molly exclaimed, like she had been trying to keep it in. "No gratefulness at all!"

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. I could definitely see a Dudley-sized tantrum coming on, so I wolfed down my bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously sensed the danger too, because she said quickly "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? _Two_ more presents. Is that all right?"**

"And his parents just cave in! It's horrible!"

"I know." said Arthur, putting a hand on her shoulder.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty... thirty..."**

"He can't even count!" said Ron, sounding shocked but a little amused. It sounded a little more amused than he thought as he was slapped on the arm by Hermione.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Uncle Vernon and I watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon" she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in my direction.**

"That's so mean," Neville exclaimed, "Being talked about like you're not there!"

Harry shrugged, "I was used to it by then."

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but my heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, I was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. I hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made me look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at me as though I'd planned this. I knew I ought to fell sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when I reminded myself that it would be a whole year until I had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again.**

All the kids sniggered.

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"**Don't be silly, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about me like this as though I wasn't there – or rather, as though I was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"Harry is not a slug!" said nearly everyone in the room. All of them - even his own kids – looked shocked on how Harry was treated.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"**

"**On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," I put in hopefully (I'd be able to watch what I wanted on television and maybe have a go on Dudley's computer).**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she had just swallowed a lemon.**

"**And find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"**I won't blow up the house," I said, but they weren't listening.**

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car ..."**

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."**

"Oh yes," Bill began with a very sarcastic tone," the car is _way _more important than Harry.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"**Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I … don't … want … him … t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge fake sobs. "He always ssp-spoils everything!" He shot me a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.**

"I bet he stops crying now." Scorpius muttered darkly,

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**Half an hour later, I couldn't believe my luck! I was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in my life. Vernon and Petunia hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with me, but before we'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken me aside.**

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to mine, "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, any at all, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"**I'm not going to do anything," I said, "honestly ..."**

"Of course not!" scoffed Ron. He knew about the boa constrictor incident from when Harry had told him and Hermione about being a parselmouth.

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe me. No one ever did. **

**The problem was, strange things often happened around me and it was no hood telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Ah, of course." exclaimed Bill, "Accidental magic."

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of me coming back from the barber's looking like I hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut my hair so short I was almost bald except for his fringe which she left "to hide that horrible scar".**

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at me. I spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where I was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, I had got up to find my hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. I had been given a week in my cupboard for this, even though I tried to explain that I _couldn't_ explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Impressive" muttered Victoire.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force me into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles). The harder she tried to pull it over my head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit me. Aunt Petunia decided that it must have shrunk in the wash**

"Ze things zese muggles do to avoid magic. 'Ilarious!" scoffed Fleur.

**and, to my great relief, I wasn't punished.**

**On the other hand, I'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing me as usual when, as much to my surprise as anyone else's, there I was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from my headmistress telling them that I had been climbing school buildings. But all I'd tried to do (as I shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door ofmy cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. I just supposed that the wind must have caught me in mid-jump.**

"Ah," George said wisely, "A very probable hypothesis."

"Wow, Dad." Fred said in mock admiration, "I never knew you had such a wide vocabulary."

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

"I bet one galleon that nothing will turn out right." Albus said knowledgeably.

"And how can you tell that everything will turn out wrong, Al?" Rose questioned.

"It's the Potter luck, or lack of." replied Harry.

"Alright, you're on." said Rose, writing it down in her notepad which she took everywhere.

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, my cupboard or Mrs Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things; people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes.**

"**... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook us.**

"**I had a dream about a motorbike," I said, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"I don't think Vernon is going to take that one well." Ron chuckled.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at me, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"**

"Told you." Ron said smugly.

"Ron, you could be the new Divination teacher!" Hermione teased.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"**I know they don't" I said. "It was only a dream."**

**But I wished I hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than me asking questions, it was my talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon – they seemed to think that I might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked me what I wanted before they could hurry me away, they bought me a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn't bad either, I thought, licking it as we watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blonde.**

**I had the best morning I'd ever had in a long time. **

"See, Al." Rose said smugly, "Best morning ever!"

"Yes, but knowing Dad, things are going to go downhill very quickly." Replied Albus.

"Oi!" Harry shouted, making everyone else laugh, "Dad just happens to be in this room!"

**I was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunch-time, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting me. We ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and I was allowed to finish the first.**

**I felt, afterwards, that I should have known it was all too good to last.**

Albus grinned.

**After lunch we went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dustbin – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move." he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**I moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. I supposed it would be worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake me up – at least I got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with mine.**

_**It winked**_**.**

"What?" exclaimed everyone except Ron and Hermione, who found out about this incident in their second year.

**I stared. Then I looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. I looked back at the snake and winked too.**

**The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave me a look that said quite plainly: '_I get that all the time.'_**

"**I know," I murmured through the glass, though I wasn't sure the snake could hear me. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" I asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. I peered at it.**

_**Boa Constrictor, Brazil**_

"**Was it nice there?"**

**The boa contrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and I read on:**

_**This specimen was bred in the zoo.**_

"**Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind me made both of us jump. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T _BELIEVE_ WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.**

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching me hard in the ribs. Caught by surprise, I fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

Molly was shocked. "What happened?" she asked in a panic. She did not like the boy, but still didn't want anything too bad to happen to him.

**I sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor – people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past me, I could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

"So you really are a parselmouth!" exclaimed George.

"_Was_ a parselmouth you mean." said Harry, making everyone else give him puzzled looks. The kids were trying to work out what a parselmouth is, but the adults were all looking at Harry, waiting for an answer. "When Voldemort died, I lost the ability to speak parseltongue."

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as I had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time we were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling us how it had nearly bitten of his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for me at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Cough up," Albus said smugly, holding out his hand to receive his winnings from a very disgruntled Rose.

"You know, you shouldn't really be betting." Ginny scolded. Hermione nodded, backing her up.

"But Fred and George betted when they were in their fifth year. They were supposed to win a lot of money from Mr. Bagman after the World Cup." Hugo said knowledgeably, defending his sister.

"And how do you know about that?" Hermione questioned. The kids all just smirked. George had once told them the story about how they were conned by Bagman. It gave them a valuable lesson about leprechaun gold, and how to recognise it.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on me. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go – cupboard – stay – no meals,"**

"WHAT?" Molly, Ginny, Fleur and Hermione shouted in unison.

**before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**I lay in my dark cupboard much later, wishing I had a watch. I didn't know what time it was and I couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, I couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

**I'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as I could remember, ever since I'd been a baby and my parents had died in a 'car crash'. I couldn't remember being in the car when my parents had died. Sometimes, when I strained my memory during long hours in my cupboard, I came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on my forehead. This, I supposed, was the crash, though I couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. I couldn't remember my parents at all. My aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course I was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When I had been younger, I had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take me away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were my only family. Yet sometimes I thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know me. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to me once**

"I bet two galleons that it was Dedalus Diggle" Arthur shouted.

"Arthur!" Molly exclaimed, "You're setting a bad example."

"Fine. I bet two galleons that it _isn't_ Dedalus Diggle." Bill said calmly. "It could be any wizard."

"You're on." Arthur replied, confidently. After all, he knew how eccentric Dedalus was.

**while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking me furiously if I knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed us out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at me one on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken my hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second I tried to get a closer look.**

**At school, I had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"And that's the end of the chapter" Harry said calmly.

**A/N: Yay! Finished the first reading chapter! Reviews would be great to get some criticism to make this fanfiction better. Not sure when the next chapter will be published. Until then, happy reading!**


	3. The Letters From No One

**Harry's Tale: The Philosopher's Stone**

Chapter Two

The Letters from No One

**(A/N: Okay, I am so sorry that this is _so_ late. I've been really busy. I won't go through the long list of reasons of why this is late, but I promise I will try to get the next one in 2 to 4 days)**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of the characters!**

Before Harry started to read, Molly interrupted him.

"They treated you like that!"

"Uh, yeah …"

"We had no idea..." said Hermione, shaking her head. Ron's shock and fury was beyond words as he didn't speak but was just shaking his head angrily. Before anyone could interrupt again, he began reading.

**Chapter Two, **Harry read, **The Letters from No One**

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned me my longest-ever punishment. By the time I was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

"Didn't you go to school?" Hermione asked, outraged.

"Well, yeah, but as soon as I had got back home I had to go into my cupboard." Harry replied.

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. **

**I was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Yeah, really good logic!" Ginny scoffed.

"Well, it wasn't that hard to work it out" Harry replied dismissively.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting. **

Neville looked curiously at Harry. He knew how it was to grow up without parents, but even though his grandma was strict, she wasn't cruel to him. He couldn't believe how hard it would be for him to be treated like this and _then _find out he's a wizard and _then_ find out he's famous.

**This was why I spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. I, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny. **

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told me. "Want to come upstairs and practice?" **

**"No, thanks," I said. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." Then I ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

All the kids (and Ron, Ginny and George) were laughing while the adults were looking at Harry sternly.

"Hey, I was eleven!" Harry defended, but that just made everyone laugh even harder.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving me at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let me watch television and gave me a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't **

**looking.**

"What?" said the adults in varying levels of severeness. But Molly was beside herself.

"THEY _ENCOURGED _VIOLENCE!" she was screaming. "HOW COULD THEY?"

**This was supposed to be good training for later life. As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. I didn't trust himself to speak. I thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh. **

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when I went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water. **

**"What's this?" I asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. **

**"Your new school uniform," she said. I looked in the bowl again. **

**"Oh," I said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet." **

"Er... Harry," said Ron who was trying not to laugh, "are you actually being serious, or was that a joke?"

"Um..." said Harry.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." I seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. I sat down at the table and tried not to think about how I was going to look on my first day at Stonewall High - like I was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. **

"Ugh!" exclaimed Albus, "You had to wear that?"

"Ah, but you're forgetting that Harry should be getting his letter soon." Arthur said wisely.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from my new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

**"Make Harry get it."**

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."I dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was **

**vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for me. **

"YEAH!" all the kids yelled. "You finally got your letter!"But Harry was shaking his head. Now that he looked back on it, he really should have opened the letter in the hall.

**I picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in my whole life, had written to me. Who would? I had no friends, no other relatives - I didn't belong to the library, so I'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: **

**Mr. H. Potter **

**The Cupboard under the Stairs **

**4 Privet Drive **

**Little Whinging **

**Surrey **

Everyone who knew what muggle letters were really like, laughed. Many people however looked confused.

"Isn't that how a muggle letter is supposed to be addressed?" said Bill.

"No, usually they _don't_ put where you sleep." said Harry, who was laughing very hard with the handful who got the joke.

"Oh, right" everyone else said, though some of them still looked confused.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, I saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. **

"HOGWARTS!" shouted Hugo and Rose, excitedly.

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you **

**doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. I went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. I handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. **

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. **

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. -." **

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!" I was on the point of unfolding my letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of my hand by Uncle Vernon. **

"You should of opened it in the hall," said Hermione, "you should of known your Aunt and Uncle by now, they would never let you have something like that"

"But I didn't know what it was at the time." Harry reminded her.

**"That's mine!" I said, trying to snatch it back. **

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge. **

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. **

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. **

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!" **

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that me and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored.**

"Well personally, I think it is _good_ for the boy to not get what he wants. He should learn that life isn't handed to him on a silver plate." Molly said severely.

**He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick. **

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly. want to read it," I said furiously, "as it's mine." **

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. Harry didn't move. **

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" I shouted. **

"Now, now Harry, no shouting." said George with mock severeness while his son and James sniggered.

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley. **

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both me and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw us into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. me and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so I, my glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on my stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. **

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" **

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly. **

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -" **

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. **

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything... **

**"But -" **

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" **

Hermione and Ron both shivered. They remembered when Abeforth told them about his poor sister who had magic 'forced' out of her. They couldn't imagine how Harry had to live with people who wanted to squish magic out of him. This action went unnoticed apart from Arthur who had an idea on why they did that.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited me in my cupboard. **

**"Where's my letter?"I said, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" **

**"No one. it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. **

**"I have burned it." **

**"It was not a mistake," I said angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." **

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. **

Again, Ron and Rose shuddered.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. **

**"Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom. **

**"Why?"I asked. **

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt **

**Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. **

"HE HAD TWO BEDROOMS AND HARRY HAD TO SLEEP IN A _CUPBOARD_!" Molly screamed, looking absolutely livid . But she wasn't the only one. Several people looked mutinous, some outraged, but most looked just shocked at this piece of news.

**It only took me one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. I sat down on the bed and stared around me. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled;**

"Ungrateful brat!" Molly muttered darkly.

**there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. **

Rose and Hermione looked outraged. Rose had inherited her mother's love for books and hated to see them lying on a shelf collecting dust, rather than being read and the knowledge within them absorbed.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, **

"**I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..." **

**I sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today I'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it. **

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"Good." many people said.

**I was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing I'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. **

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to me, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -'" **

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, me right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that I had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with my letter clutched in his hand. **

**"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at me. **

**"Dudley - go - just go." **

**I walked round and round my new room. Someone knew I had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know I hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time I'd make sure they didn't fail. I had a plan.**

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. I turned it off quickly and dressed silently. I mustn't wake the Dursleys. I stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. **

"Oh, right," said Teddy, "I get it! But I don't think it will work."

**I was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. My heart hammered as I crept across the dark hall toward the front door -**

"**AAAAARRRGH!"**

**I leapt into the air; I'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something _alive_! **

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to my horror I realized that the big, squashy something had been my uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that I didn't do exactly what I'd been trying to do. **

"Told you." Teddy said smugly.

**He shouted at me for about half an hour and then told me to go and make a cup of tea. I shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time I got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. I could see three letters addressed in green ink. **

"**I want -" I began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before my eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot. **

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up." **

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." **

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him. **

"Oh yes, we are _so_ crazy compared to you."" said James sarcastically, which caused his mother to glare at him.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for me. As they **

**couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, **

**slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small **

**window in the downstairs bathroom. Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises. **

All the kids ( and George, Ron and Ginny) were laughing while most of the adults were trying to contain their amusement.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to me found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. **

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked me in amazement. **

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy. **

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -" Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but I leapt into the air trying to catch one. **

"Um, mate, why didn't you pick one off the ground?" Ron asked, confused.

"Um, I guess I didn't think of that." Harry said sheepishly while everyone else howled with laughter.

**"Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized me around the waist and threw me into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor. **

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the **

**boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat;**

"Good." Bill said, and many people agreed apart from Molly. (who was actually silently agreeing with her eldest son)

**his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag. **

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

**"Shake 'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this. They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

" I think it's good for him." said (to everyone's surprise) Arthur.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and I shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering... **

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: **

**Mr. H. Potter **

**Room 17 **

**Railview Hotel **

**Cokeworth **

**I made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared. **

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. **

**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage. **

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked **

"Dudley, I think once in your life your talking sense." said Ginny.

"You realize he's not here, right." Ron scoffed, which made Ginny glare at him so like their mother that Ron actually recoiled, making everyone else laugh, especially Molly.

**Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled. **

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. " **

**Monday. This reminded me of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was my eleventh birthday. Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

"WHAT?" everyone shouted, but Molly was the loudest.

"THEY DIDN'T EVEN GIVE YOU A PRESENT! OR A "Happy birthday Harry!" OR A CARD!"

"It really doesn't matter, it's all in the past." Harry shrugged,

"Still!" Molly said, no longer shouting.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. **

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" **

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. **

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. **

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. **

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully. **

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. I privately agreed, **

"What?" Ron said, "You really think a storm and some water would stop them?"

"Well, obviously I did." Harry replied, annoyed.

**though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and I was left to find the softest bit of floor I could find and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. **

No one said anything, but their anger was apparent.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. I couldn't sleep. I shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, my stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told me I'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. I lay and watched my birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. Five minutes to go. I heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that I'd be able to steal one somehow. **

"Oh I don't think I'll have to wait that long!" Harry said, suddenly cheerful. Everyone shot each other curious looks.

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? **

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten... nine - maybe I'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him - three... two... one... **

**BOOM. **

**The whole shack shivered and I sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in. **

"And that's the end of the chapter."

"What time is it? Hugo said, "Can we eat yet!" Rose groaned. All these horrible things going on and he wanted to eat.

"We can't eat yet. It's only four." Harry said, looking down at his watch.

"Aw..." said Ron and Hugo, to much amusement.

Meanwhile, the adults were having a heated discussion about who it was who was knocking on the door.

"I think it will be Dumbledore!" Teddy exclaimed,

"Nah, can't be. With the description of knocking being a 'BOOM', I'm guessing that it's Hagrid." Ron said wisely, also smirking slightly because he knew that it actually was Hagrid who told Harry he was a wizard.

"Seriously, it's Harry freakin' Potter!" Teddy argued, "Don't you think that Dumbledore would have told Harry himself, not just Hagrid?"

"Alright then," Ron conceded, "three galleons on Hagrid."

"Nah, I bet seven."

"Split the difference and make it five galleons." They shook hands while Rose wrote in her notebook discreetly the winnings.

**A/N: Until next time, farewell!**


	4. The Keeper of Keys

Chapter 3

The Keeper of Keys

**Chapter 3, The Keeper of Keys**

**A/N: I own nothing :'(**

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now we knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them. **

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

"Armed?" Ron asked, puzzled, "That makes no sense whatsoever!"

"It means they are holding a gun." Hermione replied smoothly.

"Ah, I see... What's a gun?" Everyone in the room laughed, and Harry quickly started to read again to prevent Arthur getting all enthusiastic and sharing his 'knowledge' on muggle things.

**There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH! The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. A giant of a man**

"Pay up, Teddy!" Ron said, holding out his hand to collect his winnings.

"But it doesn't say that it's definitely Hagrid who has blasted down the door!" Teddy complained.

"Yes, but it does say a 'giant of a man'" Rose quoted, "Do you know any other half-giants that might be able to blast away a door?" Ron smirked, and Teddy conceded and handed him the five galleons.

"You know that you were cheating, betting on something you already knew." Hermione whispered into Ron's ear.

"Yes, well that could also be compared to confunding a keeper in tryouts." Ron replied, smirking.

**was standing in the doorway. His face was almost **

**completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"You make him sound more threatening than he really is!" Hugo laughed.

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at us all. **

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..." He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. "Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger. Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant. I looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

Albus smiled, he really loved his eyes. Lily glanced at him and also smiled, she knew what he was thinking. She had found it odd when she was younger, that everyone (including Harry) said Albus had Lily's eyes, even though Harry had those exact eyes too. Now she supposed that it was really a tribute to her memory.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. **

"**I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," **

"Good on 'ya Hagrid!" George said, smiling.

"Um Dad," Fred looked up at George, "You do realise that you're talking to a book?"

**said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. **

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. I opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing. **

"Ooh, I wouldn't touch that if I were you!" Ginny said, making everyone laugh, they all had experiences of Hagrid's cooking, though some more than others.

**I looked up at the giant. I meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to my mouth, and what I said instead was, "Who are you?" The giant chuckled. **

**"True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." **

**He held out an enormous hand and shook my whole arm. **

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind." **

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; I couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.**

"What?" Molly said sharply, she knew that Hagrid was expelled and his wand was snapped in two pieces, how could he do magic?

"You'll see." Harry replied to her unasked question.

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and I felt the warmth wash over him as though I'd sunk into a hot bath. The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was **

**working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley." **

**The giant chuckled darkly. **

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry." He passed the sausages to me, I was so hungry I had never tasted anything so wonderful, but I still couldn't take my eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, I said, **

**"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are." The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. **

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course. **

**"Er - no," I said. Hagrid looked shocked. **

**"Sorry," I said quickly. **

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yeh parents learned it all?" **

**"All what?" I asked. **

**"ALL WHAT?" **

"He's not going to like that!" Neville grinned.

**Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!" He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. **

**The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. **

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy -this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?" I thought this was going a bit far. I had been to school, after **

**all, and my marks weren't bad. **

**"I know some things," I said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

Several people snorted.

"Yeah Harry, that's _really_ important." said Ron, rolling his eyes.

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, **

**"About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world." **

**"What world?" Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like **

**"Mimblewimble."**

Most people sniggered (apart from Molly, who was trying not to look amused) while Ron, Ginny, Bill, George, Fred and James laughed.

**Hagrid stared wildly at me.**

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing me with a bewildered stare. "Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"Yeah, that's _really_ going to stop Hagrid." said Bill sarcastically.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" I said eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yeh a wizard." **

"Nice."Ron said, grinning, "Succinct, straight to the point."

"Wow!" Hermione said in amazement. Harry looked at her with a puzzled expression, "It took McGonagall about half an hour to actually tell me that I was a witch."

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind **

**could be heard. **

**"- a what?" I gasped. **

"Oh Harry, did you believe him at first?" Hermione questioned.

"Did you?" Harry said instead of answering.

"Well, not straight away, I had to read my letter a couple of times, but after that, yeah."

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter." **

**I stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to **

**Mr. H. Potter, **

**The Floor,**

**Hut-on-the-Rock, **

**The Sea. **

**I pulled out the letter and read: **

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY **

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE **

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme **

**Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards) **

**Dear Mr. Potter, **

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts **

**School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all **

**necessary books and equipment. **

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. **

**Yours sincerely, **

**Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress **

"Ha! They still write them like that, except for the fact that the headmaster is actually now a headmistress!" James said.

**Questions exploded inside my head like fireworks and I couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes I stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?" **

"Um...Harry, you know there's a hundred more important questions?" Ginny said, laughing.

"Hey! That was the last thing on the letter."

" Actually, it wasn't." Ron grinned, but was immediately silenced with a look...or it could have been that Harry performed a wandless, (he had been learning that for a few years now) non-verbal silencing charm.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that I could read upside down: **

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"But that's much more normal than using the telly-phone!"Ron said.

"Not in the muggle world!" Hermione said, annoyed.

"Yes! That's right!" Arthur said excitedly. It looked like Arthur was going to go on... and on, but Molly interrupted him.

"Harry, continue reading."

**I realized my mouth was open and closed it quickly. **

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, stillashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said. Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"A what?" I said, interested.**

"What? You didn't know what a muggle was?" Ron asked causing Hermione to roll her eyes.

"Honestly, Ronald. It is a term that _witches and wizards_ use!"

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call non magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"You knew?" I said. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!**

"SHE WAS NOT A FREAK!" Several people cried.

"_YOU'RE_ THE FREAK!" James said, causing his mother to glare at him.

"But you were shouting too!" he complained.

"I know, but you still shouldn't shout and_ don't_ call her a freak, even after she made your father go through all this, so shh!"

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, **

**they were proud of having a witch in the family!" **

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years. **

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!" **

**I had gone very white. As soon as he found my voice I said, **

**"Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!" **

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

**"But why? What happened?" I asked urgently. **

Everyone grimaced. They knew that if he knew what it's about, he wouldn't be asking so urgently.

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. **

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." **

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys. **

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..." **

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -" **

**"Who? " **

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." **

**"Why not?" **

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this isdifficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" I suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was getting' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him -an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the**

**Dark Side.**

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts**

Molly put her head on her husband's shoulder. She still hadn't stopped grieving for her two brothers.

**- an' you was only a baby, an' you lived." **

**Something very painful was going on in my mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, I saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than I had ever remembered it before - and I remembered something else, for the first time in my life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. **

**Hagrid was watching him sadly. **

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..." **

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. I jumped; I had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. **

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion -asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types -just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -" **

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word..." **

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. **

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. Meanwhile, I still had questions I wanted to ask, hundreds of them. **

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?" **

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go? Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. **

**Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right." **

**Hagrid looked at me with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but instead of feeling pleased and proud, I felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Me? How could I possibly be? I'd spent my life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and **

**Uncle Vernon; if I was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock me in my cupboard? If I'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick me around like a football? **

**"Hagrid," I said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. **

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" **

**I looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when I had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, I had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, I'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't I got my revenge, without even realizing I was doing it? Hadn't I set a boa constrictor on him?**

**I looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he**

**won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM**

**MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon. **

"Hagrid's not going to like that!" Lily said in a sing-song voice.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head,**

**"NEVER," he thundered, "INSULT! ALBUS! DUMBLEDORE! IN! FRONT! OF! ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley- there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, I saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

"BRILLIANT!" James, George and Fred exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, but the funniest part of it was that they had to get it surgically removed at a private hospital, and they said that it was a wart that had grown out of hand!" James grinned. His father had told him and his siblings about Dudley's pig tail when they were younger, even before they had gone to Hogwarts.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard."Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." **

**He cast a sideways look at me under his bushy eyebrows. **

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job." **

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" I asked. **

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

**"Why were you expelled?" **

Harry, Ron, Hermione suddenly became all sullen, remembering how horrid their second year had been because of Riddle's diary.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." He took off his thick black coat and threw it to me. **

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets." **

"Is there anything that isn't in Hagrid's coat? I mean, that coat must be made out of _only _pockets!" Lily asked.

"_Now _can we have food?" Hugo asked expectantly.

"Hugo, it's only 45 minutes after you last asked for a meal." Hermione said, rolling her eyes and sighing.

**A/N: Another chapter finished! Reviews would be appreciated. I would really love to have some criticism and feedback to make this fanfiction even better! So please review!**

**So... just in case you hadn't got the message... REVIEW!**


	5. Diagon Alley

Chapter Four

Diagon Alley

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! So sorry about the delay, but the next chapter should be out soon!**

**AskoII: Thanks for the tip, I've taken it into account! :D**

**Bellissa96: There will be a list of characters reading the book at the end of this chapter XD**

**

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Hermione was still having an argument with Hugo about having some food, but after Ron backed him up, Ginny decided it was best if she got some afternoon tea. After having some biscuits, they sat back down to let Harry read again.

**Chapter 4: Diagon Alley **he began.

**I woke early the next morning. Although I could tell it was morning, I kept my eyes shut tight.**

**'It was a dream',**

"Why would you want it to be a dream? You just had the best birthday ever!" Hugo asked, tactlessly.

"Because, everything I had ever believed in was being proved wrong. It's not just something you can accept easily." Harry explained.

**I told myself firmly. 'I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.'**

"Why are you such a pessimist Harry?" George asked, smirking, but Harry didn't give a reply, he continued reading.

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

**I thought to myself, 'And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door,' my heart sinking. But I still didn't open my eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

**Tap. Tap, Tap.**

"**All right." I mumbled. "I'm getting up."**

**I sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off me. The hut was now full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid was seeping on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

**I scrambled to my feet, I was so happy that what had happened last night was not a dream that I felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside of me. I went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered on to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"**Don't do that."**

It wants paying for the paper, Harry." Ron said rolling his eyes.

"I didn't know that!" retorted Harry in a annoyed voice.

"But muggles have to pay for their paper too, don't they?" said Bill. Harry didn't answer.

**I tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at me and carried on savaging the coat.**

"**Hagrid!" I said loudly, "There's an owl-"**

"**Pay him,"Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

"**What?"**

"**He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing _but_ pockets – bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, **

"Ew, I hate those things!" said Lily.

**teabags … finally, I pulled out a handful of coins that looked very strange indeed.**

"**Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

"But he won't know what they are!" Molly said, shaking her head.

"**Knuts?"**

"**The little bronze ones."**

**I counted out five Knuts and the owl held out its leg so I could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. It then flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched.**

"**Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**I was turning over the wizard coins and looked at them. I had just thought of something which made me feel as though the happy ballon inside of me had got a puncture.**

"That analogy makes no sense whatsoever, Harry." Hermione said,

"Well, I thought I had no money back then." Harry replied.

"Ah, I see."

"**Um – Hagrid?"**

"**Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

"**I haven't got any money – and you heard Uncle Vernon last night – he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"**Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

"**But if their house was destroyed – ?"**

"**They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold – an' I wouldn' say no the a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"**Wizards have _banks_?"**

"**Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**I dropped the bit of sausage I was holding.**

"**_Goblins_?"**

"Wow," Neville said, shocked, "with you reading this, it makes me realise how strange it must be to be a muggleborn." Hermione looked at him, puzzled. "I mean, after all, we have grown up with magic, but muggleborns have to deal with learning about a whole different way of life." Neville explained.

"**Yeah – so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, **

Ron grinned.

**I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe – 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you – getting things from Gringotts – knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

**I followed Hagrid out on to the rock. The sky was clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

"**How did you get here?" I asked, looking around for another boat.**

"**Flew," said Hagrid.**

"Now that is something hard to imagine. Hagrid. Flying." Ginny said in a mock surprised tone.

"**_Flew_?"**

"Seems that you agree with me." Ginny said smugly, looking at her husband.

"**Yeah – but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**We settled down in the boat, I was still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"**Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving me another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter – er – speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"He really shouldn't be doing that." Molly said sternly.

"**Of course not," I said, eager to see more magic. "Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again,**

"I wonder," Teddy pondered, "how it is that the umbrella works."

"I bet that Dumbledore has done something to make it work." Victoire said.

"You're on." James said, "Three galleons that it's his wand."

"Do not bet, Victoire. It iz not a good idea." Fleur said, glaring at her daughter.

Victoire ignored her and turned her attention to James. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, Hagrid was expelled, therefore he had his wand snapped in half." James said wisely. "He could have the pieces of his wand in the umbrella."

Teddy looked carefully at James. "Have you been told about this, or did you actually say something smart?"

"I've told him why Hagrid was expelled, but I've never told him about the umbrella." Harry assured.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Fred screamed. Everyone suddenly looked around at him, waiting for an explanation for the sudden outburst.

"Ohh, right!" Luna said suddenly, "Fred is annoyed because James said something clever."

"Yes!" Fred said, in mock shock. "You're ruining our reputation James!"

**tapped it twice on the side of the boat and we sped off towards land.**

"**Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" I asked.**

Again, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville smirked.

"**Spells – enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. **

"Turns out he was right." Ron said quietly to Bill.

**And then yeh gotta find yer way – Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

**I sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the _Daily Prophet_. I had learnt from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, I'd never had so many questions that I wanted to ask in my life.**

"**Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," **

'When has the Ministry ever _not_ messed things up?" Bill grumbled.

**Hagrid muttered, turning the page.  
"There's a Ministry of Magic?" I asked, before I could stop myself.**

"**'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

"**But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

"**Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"**Why?"**

"Wow, Harry!" James said in mock admiration, "You're even dumber than Crabbe!"

Ginny gave his son a reprimanding look that shut him up immediately. She nodded for Harry to continue.

**"_Why_?" Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper and we clambered up the stone steps on to the street.**

**Passers by stared a lot at Hagrid as we walked through the little town to the station. I couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"**Hagrid," I said, panting a bit as I ran to keep up, "Did you say there are _dragons_ at Gringotts?"**

"**Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

"Speaking of dragons," Ron said cheerfully, "does anyone know what happened to Norberta?"

"NORBERTA?" Molly shrieked, "YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT HE _HAD _A DRAGON?"

"You'll find out later in the book." Ron said quietly, withering under his mother's glare.

"**You'd _like_ one?"**

"**Wanted one ever since I was a kid – here we go."**

**We had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes time. Hagrid, who didn't understand 'Muggle money', as he called it, gave the notes to me so I could buy tickets.**

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

Everyone laughed.

"**Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches.**

**I took the parchment envelope out of my pocket.**

"**Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**I unfolded a second piece of paper that I hadn't noticed last night and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

_**First year students will require:**_

_**Three sets of plain work robes (black)**_

_**One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**_

_**One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**_

_**One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**_

"Really creative." said Fred sarcastically.

_**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**_

**SET BOOKS**

_**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**_

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) _by Miranda Goshawk_**

**A History of Magic _by Bathilda Bagshot_**

**Magical Theory _by Adalbert Waffling_**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration _by Emerc Switch_**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi _by Phyllida Spore_**

**Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger_**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them _by Newt Scamander_**

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection _by Quentin Trimble_**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

_**1 wand**_

_**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**_

_**1 set glass or crystal phials**_

_**1 telescope**_

_**1 set brass scales**_

_**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**_

_**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**_

"I always wished they didn't remind parents." Rose said, "I wonder what would happen if the parents accidentally _forgot_?"

"The broomstick would be confiscated and you would never ever see it again." Neville said in an imitation of Snape. "Oh, and probably a lot of detentions and a letter to your parents." he added.

"**Can we buy all this in London?" I wondered aloud.**

"**If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**I had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

"**I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," **

"Neither do I." Luna said, dreamily. Molly was glaring at Arthur who looked like he was about to burst into a long speech about Muggles.

**he said, while we climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily, all I had to do was keep close behind him. We passed book shops and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street filled with ordinary people. Could there really be piles of gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If I hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour, I might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told me so far was unbelievable, I couldn't help but trusting him.**

"**This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it was there. The people hurrying past didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the shabby old pub. In fact, I had the impression that only Hagrid and I could see it. Before I could mention this, Hagrid steered me inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of the was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when we walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the barman reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

"**Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid clapping his great hand on my shoulder and making my knees buckle.**

"And he still does that to everyone!" Albus complained.

"He doesn't to me!" said Lily brightly.

"Yeah, well you're lucky." grumbled Albus.

"**Good Lord," said the barman, peering at me, "is this – can it be –?"**

"Your first taste of fame." Neville said quietly. He could not imagine how hard it would be to handle the looks of admiration and adoration.

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"**Bless my soul," whispered the old barman, "Harry Potter, what an honour."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards me and seized my hand, tears in his eyes.**

"**Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back."**

**I didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at me. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and next moment, I found myself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron**

"**Doris Crockford, Mr Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

"**So proud, Mr Potter, I'm just so proud."**

"**Always wanted to shake your hand – I'm all of a flutter"**

"**Delighted, Mr Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

"**I've seen you before!" I said, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

"Damn," Bill said, handing his father the two galleons. "I should have known." Rose continued writing in her notebook.

Ron spotted her scratching down the outcome of the bet and bluntly asked, "Rose, what are you writing?"

"Just all the bets that people have been taking." Rose replied nonchalantly.

"Okay then, let's hear the total so far..." James said, excited.

" So far, Al has won one galleon, Dad has won five galleons and Grandpa has won two galleons. I've lost one galleon, Uncle Bill has lost two galleons and Teddy has lost five galleons."

Seeing that Hermione was going to explode soon about the bad examples they were setting by gambling, Victoire quickly nodded to Harry, indicating to him to continue.

"**He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone, "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

**I shook hands again and again – Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

"**Professor Quirrell!"**

Harry clenched his fists, remembering how he had thought that Quirrell was innocent.

**said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

"**P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping my hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

"**What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

"**D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires,**

"Or maybe try to steal something from vault 713." Ron said darkly.

**m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep me to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

"**Must get on – lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

**Doris Crockford shook my hand one last time and Hagrid led me through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at me.**

"**Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh – mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

"**Is he always that nervous?"**

"**Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience … They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject **

"Or maybe just scared of Lord Voldemort." Harry muttered under his breath.

– **now, where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? My head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall about the dustbin.**

"**Three up … two across …" he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.**

"**Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

**He grinned at my amazement. We stepped through the archway. I looked quickly over my shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into a solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. _Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible _ said a sign hanging over them.**

"**Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**I wished I had about eight more eyes. I turned my head in every direction as we walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad…"**

**A low soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying _Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy_. Several boys who looked my age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," I heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand – fastest ever –" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments that I had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon … **

"**Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**We had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was –**

"**Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than me. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, I noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as we walked inside. Now we were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed.**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn,**_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours,**_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**Of finding more than treasure there.**_

"**Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid**

Harry, Ron and Hermione smirked, again.

"What's with all the smirking when someone mentions stealing from Gringotts!" said the second generation. Some of them were looking excited, some terrified, some just merely curious.

"You can't mean that you actually steal something from Gringotts!" said Fred, who were looking wide-eyed at his family. Everyone just smirked again. James huffed.

**A pair of goblins bowed us through the silver doors and we were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and I made for the counter.**

"**Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry Potter's safe."**

"**You have his key, sir?"**

"**Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid and he started emptying his pockets on to the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog-biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. I watched the goblin on our right weigh a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

"**Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

"**That seems to be in order."**

"**An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about they You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

"**Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

"Double-crossing git." Ron muttered under his breath.

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog-biscuits back inside his pockets, Hagrid and I followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.**

"**What's they You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" I asked.**

"**Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that.**

**Griphook held the door open for them. I had expected to see more marble, but we were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. We climbed in – Hagrid with some difficulty – and we were off.**

**At first we just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. I tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**My eyes stung as the cold air rushed past us, but I kept them wide open. Once, I though I saw a burst of fire at the end of a passaged and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late – we plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

"**I never know," I called to Hagrid over the noise of the car, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

"**Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," **

"The way I remember it is that the 'mites go up, and the 'tites go down" Lily said, to the amusement of the boys.

"I like Hagrid's way better." said Albus.

**said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm going to be sick."**

**He did look very green and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, I gasped.**

Harry was unsure if he should continue. He knew that Ron had always been embarrassed that his family never had enough money, even though the Weasleys had gained a lot of wealth after the second war, Ron could be quite touchy when he came to the subject.

"Just get on with it, Harry." Ron said, smiling.

**Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

"**All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All mine – it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much I cost to feed me? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to me, buried deep under London.**

**Hagrid helped me pile some of it into a bag.**

"**The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

"But that's the fun of going to Gringotts!" Hugo said. He had always loved going with his mother's parents to muggle amusement parks and going on rollercoasters.

"**One speed only," said Griphook**

**We were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as we hurtled round tight corners. We went rattling over an underground ravine and I leant over the side to try and see what was down at the dark bottom but Hagrid groaned and pulled me back by the scruff of my neck.**

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"**Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

"**If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

"**How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" I asked.**

"**About once every ten years," said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.**

'That goblin really is a nasty piece of work" Bill said darkly. He had had experiences working with Griphook in the past, even before he ended up at Shell Cottage, injured.

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, I was sure, and I leant forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least – but at first I thought the vault was empty. Then I noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. I longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

"**Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart-ride later we stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. I didn't know where to run first now that I had a bag full of money. I didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that I was holding more money than I'd had in my whole life – more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

"**Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding towards _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions_. Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so I entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

"**Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when I started to speak. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just just now, in fact."**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face **

"I bet that's Malfoy." Ron muttered.

Scorpius looked up. He hadn't really been paying attention to Harry's reading until then, just hoping that his father wouldn't prove to be too much of a git.

**was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood me on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over my head and began to pin it to the right length.**

"**Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"**

"**Yes," I said.**

"**My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

"That's definitely Malfoy."

"Hey!" Scorpius said, "That's my father you're talking about!" Almost everyone had forgotten that Scorpius was there, even Harry had.

**This boy strongly reminded me of Dudley.**

"Now I think that's going a bit too far." Molly said. Scorpius smiled at her. She had always been nice towards him, even though his father was her son's enemy. He was especially grateful for when Molly had defended his friendship with Al and Rose when they mentioned it to their family.

"**Have_ you _got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

"**No," I said.**

"**Play Quidditch at all?"**

"**No," I said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"**_I_ do – Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

"**No," I said, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"**Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

Neville gritted his teeth. His mum was a Hufflepuff, and so was his girlfriend.

"**Mmm," I said, wishing I could say something a bit more interesting.**

"**I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at me and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.**

"**That's Hagrid" I said, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts.**

"**Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

"**He's the gamekeeper," I said. I was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"**Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of _savage_ – lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

"**I think he's brilliant," I said coldly.  
"_Do_ you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

"**They're dead," I said shortly. I didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

"**Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were _our_ kind, weren't they?"**

"**They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

"**I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

**But before I could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, I hopped down from the footstool.**

"**Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**I was rather quiet as I ate the ice-cream Hagrid had bought me (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

"**What's up?" said Hagrid.**

"**Nothing," I lied. **

"Harry," Hermione sighed, "you do know you're a terrible liar."

"I know." Harry said, grimacing.

**We stopped to buy parchment and quills. I cheered up a bit when I found a bottle of ink that changed colour as you wrote. When we had left the shop, I said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

"You didn't know what Quidditch was!" exclaimed all the Quidditch lovers, even the ones who had enough sense to realise that he grew up with muggles.

"**Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know – not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"**Don't make me feel worse," I said. I told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.**

" – **and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in -" **

"**Yer not _from_ a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh _were_ – he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk – you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles – look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"**So what _is_ Quidditch?"**

"**It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like – like football in the Muggle world – everyone follows Quidditch – played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls – sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"**And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

"**School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"**

"**I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," I said gloomily.**

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff!" said Neville and Teddy, who were both defending their mums.

"I know that now!"

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

"**Vol – sorry – You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

"**Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**We bought my school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag me away from _Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more) _by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"**I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"**I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let me buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list") but I got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then we visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for me, I examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and miniscule glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked my list again.**

"**Just yer wand left – oh year, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

**I felt myself go red.**

"**You don't have to -"**

"**I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everything.**

**Twenty minutes later, we left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. I was now carrying a large cage which held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. I coudn't stop stammering my thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

"**Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from then Durselys. Just Ollivanders left now – only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand … this was what I had really been looking forward to.**

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read_ Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC._**

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. I felt strangely as though I had entered a very strict library; I swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to me, so I looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of my neck prickled. The very dust and silence seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

"**Good afternoon," said a soft voice. I jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

"**Hello," I said, awkwardly.**

"**Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I though I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

**Mr Ollivander moved closer to me. I wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were starting to creep me out.**

"Good, zen I am not ze only one who is creeped out by zat man." Fleur said, remembering the time when Ollivander weighed her wand, and also how gaunt he looked when he arrived at Shell Cottage.

"**Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that we were almost nose to nose. I could see myself reflected in those misty eyes.**

"**And that's where…"**

**Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar on my forehead with a long, white finger.**

"**I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands … Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do …"**

**He shook his head and then, to my relief, spotted Hagrid.**

"**Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again … Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

"**It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

"**Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"**Er – yes, they did, yes," Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

"**But you don't _use_ them?" said Mr Ollivander sharply.  
Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. I noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Hmm..." Victoire pondered. "I guess you win. By the sounds of it, his pink umbrella does have his wand in it." She gave three galleons to James. Rose wrote down the bet.

"**Hmmm," said Mr Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now – Mr Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

"**Er – well, I'm right-handed," I said.**

"**Hold out your arm. That's it." He measure me from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round my head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

**I suddenly realised that the tape measure, which was now measuring between my nostrils was doing this on its own. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves taking down boxes.**

"**That will do," he said and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. **

"Nope." Rose said happily

**Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave.**

**I took the wand, and feeling quite foolish waved it around a bit, but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of my hand almost at once.**

"**Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. **

"Wrong again." Albus smirked.

**Quite whippy. Try -"**

**I tried – but I had hardly raised the wand when it too, was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.**

"**No, no – here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. **

"Still wrong." Fred said in a sing-song voice.

**Go on, go on, try it out."**

**I tried. And tried. I had no idea what Mr Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"**Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match her somewhere – I wonder, now – yes, why not – unusual combination – holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

Everyone grinned.

**I took the wand. I felt a sudden warmth in my fingers. I raised the wand above my head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well … how curious … how very curious …"**

"What iz curious?" Fleur asked, puzzled.

"You'll see." Bill said quietly to his wife.

**He put my new wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious … curious …"**

"**Sorry," I said, "but _what's_ curious?"**

**Mr Ollivander fixed me with his pale stare.**

"**I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother – why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"Oh, I zee." Fleur said.

**I swallowed.**

"**Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember … I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter … After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."**

**I shivered. I wasn't sure I like Mr Ollivander much. I paid seven gold Galleons for my wand and Mr Ollivander bowed us from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Hagrid and I made our way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. I didn't speak at all as we walked down the road; I didn't even notice how many people were gawping at us on the Underground, laden as we were with all our funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on my lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; I only realised where we were when Hagrid tapped me on the shoulder.**

"**Got time fer a bit to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought me a hamburger and we sat down on plastic seats to eat them. I kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Because I had no idea about magic before then, and I felt out of place when I went back into the muggle world." Harry replied.

"**You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**I wasn't sure I could explain. I'd just had the best birthday of my life – and yet – I chewed my hamburger, trying to find the words.**

"**Everyone thinks I'm special," I said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr Ollivander … but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. **

Ginny hugged Harry. She had never realised how much he had gone through.

**I don't know what happened when Vol – sorry – I mean, the night my parents died."**

**Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

"**Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts – I did – still do, 'smatter of fact."**

**Hagrid helped me on to the train that would take me back to the Dursleys, then handed me an envelope.**

"**Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September – King's Cross – it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me … See you soon, Harry."**

**The train pulled out of the station. I wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; I rose in my seat and pressed my nose against the window, but I blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"Probably apparated." said Hugo.

**A/N: As I promised at the beginning of the chapter, here is the list of characters reading the books:**

**Harry**

**Ginny**

**Albus**

**James**

**Lily**

**Scorpius**

**Ron**

**Hermione**

**Rose**

**Hugo**

**Teddy**

**Victoire**

**Bill**

**Fleur**

**Molly**

**Arthur **

**Neville Luna**

**George**

**Fred (jr.)**

**If there are any more people you think I should invite, please review or message me!**

**Also, for those who don't know, I have now written a new one shot: A Day of Grief!**


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